Tom Hiddleston will soon return to the screens as the God of Mischief, Loki, in his first stand-alone Marvel series.
The character, who was one of the victims in the events of ‘Avengers: Infinity War’, will now lead the way into Phase 4 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Finally stepping out of his brother Thor’s shadows, ‘Loki’ will explore the “vulnerabilities” of the much-loved character as he sets out on a path of self-discovery.
While the movies have mainly touched upon Loki’s mischievous side, the series aims to give an insight into what hides beneath the wickedness of the fan-favourite villain.
“I think over time I’m made aware of the different things he represents.
Some people enjoy his playfulness, his spontaneity and that inherent sense of mischief he has.
Some people enjoy his quality as an antagonist.”
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“There are some people who are drawn to his vulnerabilities, under all these layers of charm and charisma.
There is something really relatable about vulnerability,” Hiddleston said during a virtual global press conference.
Hiddleston, who played the character in six MCU movies – ‘Thor’ (2011), ‘The Avengers’ (2012), ‘Thor: The Dark World’ (2013), ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ (2017), ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ (2018), and ‘Avenger: Endgame’ – said he owes his success to all the writers who have contributed in creating the admirable antagonist.
“I owe it to the writers, everyone who has ever written this character.
Starting from Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Don Payne (who wrote the first four movies) way to series writer Michael Waldron and his amazing team.”
Loki’s range as a character, makes his job even more exciting, said Hiddleston, adding that working on the series was a joyful experience as he got to team up with people who could resonate with his passion for the story.
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“I just love playing Loki.
I feel so fortunate that I’m still here and there are just new aspects to the character every time that I learn about,” he said.
“Particularly this time around I’m surrounded by these amazing people.
All my conversations with Kevin, Kate, and Michael and interactions with Owen and Gugu.
We just had a really good time,” he added.
Hiddleston also added that the idea to extend Loki’s story happened sometime between the filming of ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’.
The series is the third to roll out from Marvel Studios’, after ‘WandaVision’ and ‘Falcon and The Winter Soldier’.
Set to stream in India on Disney+ Hotstar Premium, the show centres on Hiddleston’s witty master of magic, who tries to escape his fate during the events of 2019’s ‘Avengers: Endgame’, only to land up at the Time Variance Authority (TVA).
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Admitting that he was surprised and delighted, with this stand-alone project, he said, “I was so excited by the idea of series and also had to scratch my head a bit because that scene in ‘Infinity War’ (when Thanos kills Loki) felt so final and conclusive.
It looked like the end of Loki’s story.”
It was only after the events of ‘Avengers: Endgame’ that MCU bosses were finally to chart a course for Loki’s character.
Sharing his thoughts on the same was Kevin Feige, who said, “We didn’t know about the Loki series when we shot ‘Infinity War’, but I think we did know it when we shot ‘Endgame’.”
The series is directed by Kate Herron of ‘Sex Education’ fame.
It also marks the MCU debut of Hiddleston’s ‘Midnight In Paris’ co-star Owen Wilson as well as ‘The Morning Show’ star Gugu Mabtha-Raw.
In a recent interview with Empire magazine, Feige weighed in on the importance of the show that will serve as the forerunner to Phase 4 of the MCU and will most definitely have an impact on the films to follow.
“It’s tremendously important.
It perhaps will have more impact on the MCU than any of the shows thus far,” he was quoted saying.
The mammoth task of paving the way for the events to unfold was placed on the able shoulders of director Kate.
When asked how she landed the opportunity, she quipped, “I stalked Marvel.
I found out they were making the show and I asked my agent to call them every day until they heaved.
And it worked!”
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Speaking about the ‘crime-thriller’ aspect of the show, Kate said, “Stylistically, we were inspired from a lot of noir films and you can see it all in the lighting and how we have approached this.
‘Seven’ is a very heavy influence.”
Michael added, “‘Zodiac’ and ‘Silence of the Lamb’ were two specific films we were looking at a lot.”
Giving the director her due credit, Feige said, “The real inspiration is Kate.
We knew we wanted to do a Loki series, we wanted to have time travel elements, our producers and I were always big fans of the TVA for years.
We loved the idea of it, but just didn’t know what to do with it.
But it was really Kate’s meetings and her pitch that brought in all those references and look at it in a slightly different genre than we were anticipating.”
Considering that the 6-part series will give fans a detailed look into Loki’s character that was never fully explored in the ‘Thor’ and ‘Avengers’, Tom was also asked about his character’s growth in the series.
He said, “What I love about this series is that Loki is stripped of everything that is familiar to him.
Thor is not close by, Asgard is some distance away, the Avenger aren’t in sight, he is stripped of his status and power.
To take all those things that Loki has used to identify himself over the movies.
To question, ‘who is he?’, ‘what makes Loki, Loki?’ and ‘is he capable of growth, change and will his work at the TVA give him insight into who he might be?'”
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“I hope the audience gets a kick out of where we have taken him,” Hiddleston added.
Owen, on the other hand, also confirmed, “Some very shocking things are going to happen.”
With ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ led by Chris Hemsworth, ready to hit theatres soon, Tom and producer Kevin were asked about the huge fan base they built over the years, courtesy of the comical relationship between the on-screen brothers – Thor and Loki.
Elaborating on the humour in the franchise, Kevin said, “I think Thor and Loki had a certain amount of humour in the comics over the decades.
But the answer comes down to the performers and the remarkable talent of Mr Hemsworth and Mr Hiddleston and the range to be hilarious.”
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“It was not a plan to make it funnier now, they have always been funny and we took the fun from behind the scenes and put it on camera,” he said.